1. Field of Invention
This invention relates generally to practice devices for training a player how best to swing a bat to hit a ball, and more particularly to a trainer tee and guide assembly which creates a target zone leading a bat swung by a player toward a ball placed in a tee at an elevated position, the acceptance angle of the target zone being adjustable to accommodate different angles of swing in the course of training as the player gains greater skill.
2. Status of Prior Art
Baseball is our national game and many players learn to play at a very early age, using for this purpose a light weight bat and a soft, foam plastic ball rather then a relatively heavy and hard standard baseball.
Teaching a six-year-old child how to hit a ball with a bat is not an easy task. If you, as the child's trainer, act as a pitcher, you then try to aim the ball so that it reaches the child at his hitting side at about the level his chest so that the child, by swinging the bat, can connect with the oncoming ball. The hitting side of the player depends on whether he is right or left-handed.
It is not only difficult for an individual trainer, such as a parent who lacks pitching skills, to throw a ball so that it reaches a child holding a bat at a proper level, but it is even more difficult for a child who is a novice and has yet to develop the proper eye and hand coordination for this purpose, to strike a moving ball with a bat.
In order, therefore, to dispense with the need for a pitcher, trainer tees have been devised that place a ball at a fixed position above ground at a level appropriate to the height of the child being trained. Thus the Hardison U.S. Pat. No. 5,322,276 discloses a tee supporting a baseball at a desired elevation above ground so that it can be struck by a batter. Also included in the Hardison trainer is a guide bar directing the swinging bat toward the ball.
In training a Flayer to hit a ball with a bat, one must bear in mind that maximum hitting power is attained when the swing path is level with the ball. Some training devices are, therefore, designed to assist the batter in perfecting a level swing. Thus the St. Claire U.S. Pat. No. 3,940,131 discloses a device that includes a U-shaped frame having parallel upper and lower horizontal arms with the ball placed on the loser arm. To hit the ball, the batter must swing his bat so that it sweeps between the parallel arms and is, therefore, level with the ball. Should the swing be angled with respect to the ball, the bat will strike one of the arms, rather than the ball.
In the training device shown in the Laseke U.S. Pat. No. 5,087,039, a lower horizontal arm is provided on which the ball to be hit is supported, the height of the lower arm being adjustable so that it can be set at a desired elevation. Above the lower arm is a horizontal upper arm of adjustable height to define a zone between the parallel arms which can be widened or narrowed in the course of training to promote a level bat swing.
The drawback of those training devices which create between parallel arms a level swing zone is that at the outset of training, a novice player find it difficult to produce a level swing and all too often swings his bat in a path at an acute angle to the horizontal line. As a consequence the bat would strike and possibly damage the training device.